This invention relates to a hydrocarbon upgrading process. More particularly, it relates to a process for removing sulfur-containing impurities from a hydrocarbon feed which contains an olefinic component without materially hydrogenating the olefins.
Olefinic hydrocarbons are well known for their high chemical reactivity relative to saturated hydrocarbons. It is also known that olefinic hydrocarbon components in a gasoline or gasoline blend stock contribute to the octane numbers thereof. Sulfur-containing contaminants in a hydrocarbon, on the other hand, are undesirable and difficult to remove. In one method, the sulfur-contaminants are removed by contacting a mixture of the hydrocarbon and hydrogen gas with an effective hydrogenation catalyst, for example, a cobalt-molybdenum hydrodesulfurizing catalyst. In the method the sulfur is removed and olefinic components present therein are largely, if not completely, hydrogenated.
There is a need for a process in which sulfur-containing impurities in a hydrocarbon feedstock containing an olefinic component can be upgraded by selectively removing sulfur-containing impurities yet doing so with little or no hydrogenation of the olefins. An object herein is to fill this need.